Check Out My New Digs!!!!

I've been blogging here at aloneandunobserved.blogspot.com for almost three years, and I have very few complaints. But ultimately, I want something that's a little bit more like a multi-functional website and less like just a blog, so I've decided to move my base of operations to WordPress. I'll still be blogging, and it will still be the same old Alone and Unobserved you've grown to love or hate so dearly—along with all my old posts, and your old, and not-so-old comments—but it will be at aloneandunobserved.com instead. So head on over there and check it out, and then leave me a comment to let me know what you think. You're even welcome to tell me you hate it and wish I had just stayed, although I don't think I'll ever be going back to Blogger again. If you link to me from your blog or website, update your blogroll; if you don't link to me, now's the time to remedy that. If you subscribe to my feed, on the other hand, you shouldn't have to do anything, because Feedburner has already been apprised of my change of domicile.

"And if my cat looks scared it's because it knows it won't be going to heaven."

Because I was bored, and had nothing better to do, I spent several hours over the past week compiling a mix of all my very most favorite music, and then uploading it—byte by byte—to my DivShare account so that everyone in the whole world could enjoy it. (I make no apologies for the fact that I was originally introduced to much of this music by Fabulist.)

First of all, here's the artwork and track list:




and second of all, you have a choice between the original version and the "edited" version, where the tracks "Smile" and "Foundations" have had some swearing bleeped out.

Download scandalous original version (zip)

Download puritanical bowdlerized version (zip)

Third of all, enjoy! And tell me how much you LOVE or HATE it. "Meh" need not apply.

Breaking News from the Onion News Network

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early


Nation Of Andorra Not In Africa, Shocked U.S. State Dept. Reports

Mr. Wickham Is "Self-Employed"

If you are at all familiar with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and the world of internet dating, go read Kristen Hammond's blog about an imaginary collision of the two, and prepare to nod knowingly and laugh heartily.

(I hardly need add that if you are not familiar with Pride and Prejudice, you should remedy that as soon as possible.)

Back to My Roots

Regular readers know that I grew up Mormon and gay, and that I started this blog in part to chronicle my personal coming-out story. Now that I've come out and don't have any need of a semi-anonymous outlet for my closeted gay angst, I've branched out to include such scintillating topics as TASER abuse, contra dancing and the works of Stephen Sondheim as grist for my mill.

But I'm still a gay former Mormon, and I view the intersection of Mormonism and homosexuality as the womb that bore me. So it is with great interest and displeasure, but without much surprise, that I read the article in today's Salt Lake Tribune about a family that was driven to resign from the Mormon Church because of the husband's support of gay marriage.

When Jeffrey Nielsen lost his job as an adjunct lecturer at BYU, Peter Danzig, a professional violinist and licensed clinical social worker, wrote a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune. In the letter, Danzig came out as a Mormon, a returned missionary, a musician in the Orchestra on Temple Square and a supporter of Nielsen's pro-gay-marriage stance. Within a week after the letter was published, Danzig's church leaders began a campaign of intimidation and retribution in which they tried to browbeat him into changing his mind and to coerce him to admit he was wrong and to apologize to "the Brethren" (the highest level of Mormon authorities) whose "feelings were hurt." In the end, Danzig and his wife ended up moving and resigning from the Mormon Church in order to keep from being excommunicated.

The Tribune article is fairly bare-bones; if you want the REAL dirt, go read Danzig's wrenching personal account in which he gives an exhaustive chronicle of the whole affair, from his own father's unjust railroading at the hands of the Mormon Church to the letter Danzig sent in when he resigned his church membership. That anyone can treat another human being the way Danzig's religious leaders treated him and his family nauseates me. The fact that this is not an isolated incident, but is apparently endemic to the way the Mormon Church operates, is enraging. And the realization that I live in a state that is controlled by Mormons, and thus indirectly by the Mormon Church, is more than a bit appalling and frightening. This is the atmosphere that spawns bigoted, backwards scum like Buttars and Ruzicka.

Well, history has shown that the only thing that can make the Mormon Church change its mind is bad publicity. So let's give them some.

[You can read other reactions on Utah Cog and yes, i am. (Thanks to Cog for the link.)]

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Today, my sister Gabrielle took her husband, her baby daughter, her unflappability and her talent for intelligent and insightful conversation, and got on a plane to San Antonio. For good. From now on, I'll have to fly out to Texas if I want to talk to her and her husband, or to coo at and cradle her adorable daughter. So be kind to me: I'm grieving for people whom I may never see again.

Someone once told me that grief is a natural reaction to any change, whether it be large (sorrow over the death of a loved one), small (dissatisfaction with a haircut) or in between. I admit that my sister's move isn't as large a change for me as it might have been: I haven't spent as much time with her and her family as I would have wished over the past little while, and I certainly have not been as dependent on her as perhaps I guessed I would be when I moved here, with her only a half-hour distant and me as helpless as a babe; but I'm still going to miss her. And my niece.

I won't be completely alone, though, like I was when my roommate moved out a year or so ago. Over the past few months I've been accumulating a few friends that I actually interact with. I'm rediscovering the idea of having a conversation with someone that doesn't begin with "Can I help you?" and end with "Is there anything else I can help you find?" And I'm exploring—for essentially the first time—the idea of just "hanging out."

I'm also exploring growing out my hair and beard, as you can see:

And tomorrow I'm going back to QUAC for the first time in months! Happy day! etc., etc.

"A Nice Hard Slap"--Surprisingly Enough, NOT a Pun!

I had never heard of movie-news-and-reviews site CHUD.com until a someone pointed out that creator and blogger Nick Nunziata (nice Italian name!) had decided to review late Mormon Apostle Mark E. Peterson's guide on "Overcoming Masturbation" in hilarious and filthy fashion. So, if you enjoy unmitigated vulgarity and hi-LAR-ity, click on this link. If not, you have been warned.

The pamphlet, by the way, has been reproduced on multiple websites—some of them about overcoming masturbation, others on overcoming Mormon uptightness and prudery. Google is your friend, as always.